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Reds 7 Yankees 6 (10 innings)
The Reds bullpen blew a 4-1 8th inning lead Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, then almost below another one.
But the Reds offense bailed the pen out and they hung on to beat the Yankees 7-6 in 10 innings. The Reds, playing extra innings for the fifth time in nine days,
take the series from the team with the best record in MLB. The Reds have won 6 of their last 7. The win, coupled with a Cubs loss, moves the Reds into a tie for 4th place in the NL Central.
The matchup of All-Star starting pitchers certainly lived up to the billing. Luis Castillo and Nestor Cortez each tossed seven innings of one run ball. But then it became a bullpen game and the fun, make that chaos, began. 1-1 in the 8th, the Reds scored three runs vs the Yankees bullpen in the top of the inning and then the Yankees scored three runs vs the Reds bullpen in the bottom of the inning.
Extra, extra: The Reds exploded for three runs in the 10th inning. Joey Votto's second RBI double of the game scored 'ghost runner' Brandon Drury to make it 5-4. Tyler Stephenson roped an RBI double and Donovan Solano an RBI single to make it 7-4. Reiver Sanmartin allowed a two-run homer to Matt Carpenter in the bottom of the 10th to slice the lead to 7-6. He was done after issuing a one out walk, replaced by Dauri Moreta. He recorded the final two outs to pick up his first ML save. Wow.
The price tag continues to climb for the services of the Reds ace and trade target. Castillo was excellent, again: 7 IN, 2 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 8 K...114 pitches/74 strikes. ERA 2.77. He took a no-hitter one out into the 6th before an Anthony Rizzo double. A Giancarlo Stanton RBI groundout tied the game in the 6th.
A questionable Marwin Gonzalez 12 pitch 2-out walk extended 7th and sunk any possibility of Castillo going out for 8th. He's allowed three runs with 33 strikeouts over his last four starts/27 innings. It was his 9th consecutive start of at least 100 pitches.
Bullpen meltdown: Some moments are too big for some people. Given a 4-1 lead, Jeff Hoffman served up a homer to Aaron Judge to start the 8th. He issued a two-out, four-pitch walk and then was taken yard by Gleyber Torres with a game-tying two-run homer. He walked Joey Gallo (4 for last 49/hitting .164) and was done. The bullpen had allowed six runs over the last seven games and 30.1 innings. Hoffman surrendered three runs in less than an inning.
Nestor Cortez: 7 IN, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 89 pitches/64 strikes. ERA 2.62. I think I saw Fernando, Franco, Cueto and Tiant wind ups from him.
On the board: The Reds broke a scoreless tie in the 5th inning when they turned a Senzel single, Stuart Fairchild walk and India hit by pitch into a run with a sacrifice fly by Drury....1-0.
Tiebreaker: The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the 8th when Votto lined a single the other way to score India. Kyle Farmer went the other way with a 2-out, 2-run single and it was 4-1 Reds.
2 hits: Votto, Stephenson, India.
The basics: The Reds failed to make so many plays. India's failure to go 1st to 3rd on a Pham soft single to right field and the weakest arm in MLB cost the Reds a 1st inning run when Votto flew out to the warning track. Drury didn't charge a one-hopper from Aaron Judge and India couldn't get the DP turned.
India bobbled a tough chopper with runners on 2nd/3rd and the infield in that allowed the Yankees first run to score in the 6th inning. He did make a nice recovery to get the out at 1B.